Nivema's Sorrow
Salika's Knowledge #261
The ever-frozen glacier of Nivema's Sorrow... This colossal mountain of ice sits in the middle of the Aetheric Ocean, and it has a large influence on the climate and weater of the ocean and lands around it. The Aelurus Islands can't support more than icy tundra because of this. The Argent Channel that connects West Cassel and the Empire of Irrelith to the ocean, is frozen solid during the winter months.
But what is the cause of this cold and ice? It's in the name. The Goddess Nivema is still frozen there. Her dominion over ice and cold spreading forth, covering a large part of the world in eternal winter. This power seeping from her frozen body is her sorrow, and will not stop altering the lands around her until she can find happiness again. I have doubts that could ever happen.
- Salika
Nivema's Domain
This glacier has been here in the Aetheric Ocean since the middle of the Silver Age. Ice Ages come and go, and her power grows and wanes, but the mountain in the center remains. Deep inside this mountain, somewhere under the water, is Nivema's palace, where she sits on her throne in silence and despair.
At least that is how Iron Age people see it. They don't know what caused her to freeze herself. What they know is the land in southeast Cassel and Northern Kalletra is impossibly cold for this part of the world. Only a few hundred kilometers away over the mountains are lands like the Sands of Nessa, or The Olimian wastes, two of the hotter parts of Vreathe.
Due to Nivema's outsized influence on the climate in these areas is much more like that of the far north. The Ledon Frontier Lands has a subarctic climate with large areas of boreal forests. Confiers grow here that aren't seen again until you reach the far northern reaches of nations like Pikelandt, Faeon, and Pellensk, over a thousand kilometers to the north.
Then there are the Aelurus islands. People live here with a similar culture as those of the extreme north, and are adapted for living a live on the icy tundra. They mostly get around by sled, using dogs, lions, elk, bears, etc. Anything they can capture, domesticate, and train, the people who live here have done it. These islands can see snow at any time of the year, and the goddess Nivema is almost entirely responsible for that...
Nivema's Sorrow during the summer. It is incredibly rare that the ice melts and the waters become somewhat navigable by boat. Usually the only way to reach it is by foot or sled. For a sense of scale, the ice bergs in the foreground are still hundreds of meters across while the giant ice mountain in the background is over 8000 meters tall, much taller than Mount Rakkos, the tallest peak in Cassel.
History
Before there was sorrow...
Not all of the Elder God's children were born in the dark days. Some were born during the Golden and Silver Ages. Nivema was one such goddess. She was created to have dominion over Ice and Cold, after her nameless predecessor who helped Tazil to overthrow the other gods and was destroyed. Nivema was born in the year 370 kSA, towards the end of the Reign of the Gods over the Olimians.
Nivema was much closer to the humans than most other gods, being similar in age and growing up around them. Because of this the timeline of the events surrounding her are rather short compared to just about any other god. In the year 372 kSA, she met a man named Arren. The two quickly developed a relationship and fell in love. Nivema had three children with Arren, and people descended from them are known today to have the Snow trace. Her children were names Sed, Shen, and Amagi. Nivema had a happy life.
The problem is that this was at the end of the time period known as The reign of the gods. The Elder Gods Alom and Yanneth had ruled the Olimians for nearly a hundred thousand years. They stopped the Silver Race from traveling to other worlds. They stopped them from developing their technology and magic. The lifespans of the Silver Race grew shorter over time as the Silver Trace within them slowly diluted and disappeared. Tensions between the gods and the Silver Race had grown and were reaching critical levels.
King Arren I
Arren was one of the leaders of the Olimians, and he for a long time had been making secret plans to overthrow the gods. He took on the work of his father and grandfather and a long line of people before him. the sky fortresses being built on The Moon Izi were complete and outfitted with the necessary weapons to take on the Gods.
He had one thing he had to take care of, one thing to sever before he could overthrow Alom and Yanneth. Arren took Nivema outside the City of Tenali. He told her his plans of overthrowing the gods and taking Vreathe back for the humans. He asked Nivema to join him, reasoning that she was more human than a god anyways. Nivema had to decline. She couldn't do such a thing. Arren asked Nivema if she was going to fight him then? Nivema refused. She left Arren and started to walk to the east, when she reached the ocean, she froze it and kept walking until she was long out of sight of land. Here she built a great ice palace.
In the year 375 kSA, Arren I declared himself King of the Olimians. All of the skyfortresses on Izi travelled to Vreathe to take part in the great war. Of the Gods that took part, Vikuon, Lord of Yikonis, was imprisoned. Altus, Lord of Giants, was imprisoned. Tazil appeared to help the humans beat back the elder Gods Alom and Yanneth. All three were imprisoned in the lesser moon Nodan. Other gods like Flora, Beirunes, and Nivema refused to take part.
End of Arren and Nivema
Nivema sat on her throne and looked out over Vreathe. she could see that the humans had won, beating back the gods and imprisoning the ones that took part. She then saw that Arren I was on a warpath. He was going after all the other gods as well, even those that had no quarrel against the humans. Nivema left her palace and went to meet with him.
All Nivema found was a changed man, someone who had no desire to be peaceful. He wanted nothing more than to rule everything forever. He had new plans. After imprisoning the rest of the gods, he was to build a great crystal tower that would grant the Olimians immortality. Arren ordered his army to attack Nivema. Nivema froze the first wave of soldiers and pleaded with Arren to stop.
Arren sent a second wave of soldiers. Nivema again froze the soldiers and cried for Arren to stop. Arren then ordered the Skyfortress Libra and the Skyfortress Sagittarius to attack. Nivema was pierced with several large arrows, which didn't do much to a god. Nivema asked Arren one more time to stop and go. Arren Refused.
Nivema had no more choices. She used her power to freeze Arren's army solid. Over a hundred thousand men were frozen. Everyone inside two of the Sky Fortresses wre frozen, which caused the ships to crash. She froze everyone except Arren. Nivema then left the battlefield and went back to her palace.
Nivema's Sorrow
Nivema went back to her palace and sat on her throne. She looked out over Vreathe. She decided that she didn't want to live on this world. In the year 377 kSA, she used a great amount of her power to freeze herself, her palace, and the surrounding ocean. A great glacier grew and sunk into the water. It grew and grew until it became one of the largest mountains on Vreathe, then it started to influence the surrounding waters, freezng everything.
Arren needed the ocean for resources and to move his armies around. He constructed great ice breakers to break apart the ice when it built up too much, a sign that the love between him and Nivema was truly broken.
Nivema remains inside her glacier to this day, her domain over ice unchallenged. She remained through the Bronze Age. When the Elder Goddess Saint Nora created the World Barrier to shut the gods out of Vreathe forever, her power did not work on Nivema, who was the closest to being human out of all the gods. Nora decided to let Nivema rest. Nivema is still there inside the glacier to this day, frozen and waiting for a day she can be happy again.
Icy Aethercite
Ice is a crystalized form of liquid Water, so it can act like Aethercite. When charged with Aether, this ice gets colder, which gives it a number of uses during the Iron Age. The ice generated by Nivema's Sorrow is among the most powerful and effective forms of this ice. The ice still can't be harvested at an industrial scale, but the people of the Aelurus Islands make a majority of their income off of harvesting this ice and shipping it off to various parts of Cassel and the rest of Vreathe.
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